Pandora's Breeches
and over 900,000 other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| |||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Amazon.co.uk Trade-In Store for more details. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Book Description
An original and highly readable exploration of the role of women in the history of science
Product Description
'Had God intended Women merely as a finer sort of cattle, he would not have made them reasonable.' Writing in 1673, Bathsua Makin was one of the first women to insist that girls should receive a scientific education. Despite the efforts of Makin and her successors, women were excluded from universities until the end of the nineteenth century, yet they found other ways to participate in scientific projects. Because these were being carried out inside private houses, rather than in universities or industrial laboratories, experiments often involved the whole family. As well as collaborating in this home-based research, women corresponded with internationally renowned scholars, hired tutors, and even published their own books. They played essential roles in work that was frequently attributed solely to their husbands, fathers or friends. Women, in this way, have not been written out of the history of science: they have never been written in. If mentioned at all, they appear in subservient roles as helpless admirers or menial assistants. Historians always decide which facts to emphasise, and they generally choose to depict a vision of scientific progress that ignores women's activities. By re-examining the lives of individuals, Pandora's Breeches explores how women of the 17th and 19th century engaged in science and contributed to its rapid growth. It sets out a new and compelling version of science's past. (20030513)
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organise and find favourite items. |
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Nine fine biographies of Enlighted women,
By Christian Jongeneel (Rotterdam, Netherlands) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Pandora's Breeches: Women,Science and Power in the Enlightenment (Paperback)
"Had God intended Women merely as a finer sort of cattle, he would not have made them reasonable", wrote Batshua Makin in 1673, advocating educational rights for women. Still, even in the age of reason women were confined to a role in the background.
This book gives nine delightful biographies of women who, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, refused to be mere shadows of men. The most impressive is Émilie du Châtelet, who spoke six languages at twelve and would become the lover of Voltaire, under whose name she would publish an authorative book on Newtons newly discovered laws of mechanics. This book is too sketchy to provide a detailed biography of any of the women involved, but it does make a fine overview of forgotten women of the Enlightenment.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
